Pakistan fast-tracks probe into Mumbai terror attacks

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Investigators have 10 days to complete their inquiries into the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan's top Interior Ministry official said yesterday.

Rehman Malik told reporters that investigators were looking at information handed over by India and leads gathered independently. Provincial and central government-level investigations were continuing, he said.

Islamabad is under pressure to clamp down on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned Pakistan-based militant group that India blames for the November siege, which killed about 160 people in its commercial capital.

On Thursday, Pakistan's Interior Ministry said that it had arrested 71 people linked to the group, and that 124 others were under surveillance and had to register their every move with police.

Malik said that he hoped to fast-track the investigation and build a case quickly, but that much depended on the judicial system's speed.

On Jan. 5, India handed Pakistan a dossier of evidence that included information on interrogations, weapons, and data gleaned from satellite phones used in the attack on Mumbai targets such as hotels and a Jewish center.

India said the material proved that Pakistan-based militants had plotted and executed the attacks. Indian officials have repeatedly insinuated that Pakistani intelligence agents were involved.

Pakistan denies that, though it has accepted that the one Mumbai gunman captured alive is a Pakistani.

Speaking to a business group in Mumbai yesterday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he expected Pakistan to take "all the consequent next steps against all those who have planned, organized and executed this horrific crime."

"I urge the Pakistan authorities to come out with a full and complete disclosure of all the facts surrounding the case without attempts at denial, diversion or obfuscation," Singh said.